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About Steve

We’ve been remiss in reporting here the news that both Agent of Change and Fledgling are now available as free downloads from most major sources including Baen Books and Amazon. We’d been thinking about this for some time since so many of our readers and fans have reported that their introduction was a loaned or free copy of a Liaden book. Now you can have copies of these two Liaden Universe® novels for your own ebook or point your ebook-reading friends toward them – for free!

Although the Kindle and other electronic versions were released a little early our Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume 1 came out from Baen Books in paper July 2, both through online venues and in stores. Early on it briefly hit the Amazon top 10 of SF anthologies and short stories and has been sighted in stores from coast to coast.

Here’s your chance to catch up on the stories and adventures you might have missed during the universe’s early years where some of the short stories were first published in hard-to-find genre publications. make sure you have this, and let your friends know about it too!

First Class Pilot Theo Waitley is determined to live down her reputation as a “nexus of violence.” Unfortunately, the universe isn’t cooperating. She has accepted the precarious captaincy of a mysterious — and illegal — self-aware ship aching to find a crew and a purpose. Together, they agree to test a trade route for Clan Korval, which seems an occupation with limited access to violence. But Clan Korval has enemies and they’re soon on Theo’s trail. Then, she’s challenged to rescue hundreds of stranded pilots and stationers from an explosive situation in near orbit around a suddenly hostile planet. Lovers, enemies, an ex-roomie, and a jealous spaceship are all in peril as Theo wields power that no one in the universe is sure of, especially her.

Thanks to our longtime readers and fans we’re finishing up the 25th Anniversary Year of the Liaden Universe® and what a grand year we’ve had. We’ve met and talked with many of you at conventions, the BEA, and on our Trade Secret book tour. Jethri’s adventures, like Theo’s, have brought round lots of commentary, and Trade Secret hit the Bookscan bestseller list at Number 6 — a real accomplishment in these days of movie and TV-tie-in domination of the Science Fiction bestseller lists.

One thing we’ve been surprised by is how many of our readers tell us they’ve been with us (or our characters) since close to the beginning. To help us celebrate Trade Secret and our 25th year of Liaden publication please share with us your first Liaden experience — and how many titles you’ve read since then — and we’ll randomly select 5 lucky responders for a free Trade Secret audio book courtesy of Audible! We’ll be selecting winners based on replies received by midnight Friday,December 6 (our time in snowy Maine). You’ve got 5 shots — tell us how you got started in the Liaden Universe®!

For January we’ve added a new story to the line-up over at Splinter Universe — you can find it there now. We plan to add a story each month as well as the occasional guest story as well. The new story, “The Rifle’s First Wife” is a novelette of just over 13000 words and will be online for a few months. If you’d like to support these expanded efforts, read the story, and find a donate link at the end.

Meanwhile, as things stand now Sharon will not be at Boskone the weekend between Valentine’s Day and President’s Day, but Steve will. Look for a Friends of Liad Breakfast, probably Saturday February 15 in one of the hotel restaurants. Steve had a full slate of program items, a reading, signing and kaffeeklatsch on schedule.

Boskone Book Release Sat 19:30 – 21:00 — lots of books new and on the way, including some new Lee & Miller items

Sunday, February 16

Ezines, Fanzines, and Blogs, Oh My! Sun 11:00 – 11:50, Lewis

Reboots: New Chances for Old Stories? Sun 12:00 – 12:50, Burroughs

In other news, we’ve been doing a little work behind the scenes — and in the front room — over at our Splinter Universe story-and-stuff site.

Please take a look, and watch for changes. Support the site or individual stories, or both!

ALSO REMEMBER, Sharon Lee has a new contemporary fantasy book out in the Kate Archer series. That’s Carousel Sun — available from most online bookstores — but EXCLUSIVELY available signed by bookplate from Uncle Hugo’s excellent bookshop.

We’ve published a new Liaden Universe® story over at the Splinter Universe site — look for “Roving Gambler” along with other splinters and stories. We’ll be updating that site more regularly now — watch for some spoken word reprises of older (non-Liaden) Lee & Miller fiction starting soon. You can help support these efforts — you’ll see donation buttons on the stories and in the margins there.

Coming up this summer, Lee & Miller will be attending DetCon 1 — this years NASFIC or North American Science Fiction Convention. That’ll be in July, and we expect to have an evening Liaden party, autograph, have Friends of Liad breakfast, and read from works in progress — as well as be on panels and wander the wonders of the convention. Our Splinter Universe site helps support our travel to meet fans around the US.

Meanwhile, if you’ve got questions or think you may have missed a story, there are two sites to check out. One is the Liaden Universe® Wiki, a fan organized and run site with all kinds of Liaden information. If you want to get answers to mysteries, or to help solve questions for others, that’s a great place to visit. The other place is Pinbeam Books, where there’s a list of the available Lee & Miller chapbook releases in ebook format. We don;t sell from that site — but it tells you what’s available and where to get it — Amazon, B&N/Nook, or Smashwords.

This year’s iteration of the world’s oldest ongoing SF convention will take place November 21 to 23, 2014 & will feature Steve Miller and Sharon Lee as Principal Speakers in Cherry Hill, NJ. Along with dozens of other well-known writers, artists, filkers, and fans they’ll bring lots of literary fun to the outskirts of Philadelphia the weekend before Thanksgiving. See you at Philcon 2014?